Bush Says Iraqis Not Grateful Enough

SCOTT PELLEY: Do you think you owe the Iraqi people an apology for not doing a better job?

BUSH: That we didn’t do a better job or they didn’t do a better job?

PELLEY: Well, that the United States did not do a better job in providing security after the invasion.

BUSH: Not at all. I am proud of the efforts we did. We liberated that country from a tyrant. I think the Iraqi people owe the American people a huge debt of gratitude, and I believe most Iraqis express that. I mean, the people understand that we’ve endured great sacrifice to help them. That’s the problem here in America. They wonder whether or not there is a gratitude level that’s significant enough in Iraq.

PELLEY: Americans wonder whether . . .

BUSH: Yeah, they wonder whether or not the Iraqis are willing to do hard work.

Here’s a question for Emily Post: What level of gratitude is appropriate when your country has been invaded under false pretenses, tens of thousands of your fellow citizens have been killed, and hundreds of thousands have fled the country due to the very real fear of assasination? Will a muffin basket do it?

Bush then goes on to repeat a whole bunch of canards about Saddam “rushing to compete with Iran for a nuclear weapon” and that “everybody was wrong on weapons of mass destruction.” (Uhhh, for the record, not everybody.)

After listening to Bush and Cheney (who seems raring to invade Iran, btw.) do the talk shows today, I’m left wondering: Do these guys really believe their own bullshit? Or is it all just cynical doublespeak? And which is worse? Morally, and for the future of the American and Iraqi people?

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